Regulating Prostitution Essay -- Prostitutes Ethics Morals Sex Essays

Regulating ProstitutionHistorically, although prostitution has been viewed as a threat to the moral order and a peril to public health, the state has tended to legislate for the regulation of prostitution, rather than introducing measures focussed on its elimination. Even early Christian societies did not seek to eliminate prostitution, with the church fathers justifying this stance by asserting that Sewers are incumbent to guarantee the wholesomeness of palaces. (quoted by de Beauvoir, 1974, 618). St Augustine was adamant that prostitution should be recognised as a necessary social evil, arguing,Suppress prostitution and capricious lusts will overthrow society. (cited in Roberts, 1992, 61).His stance was predicated on a belief in mens devolve onual appetites necessitating accession to sexual outlets outside of marriage. In order to observe them committing adultery and threatening their marriages, society should facilitate mens access to prostitutes. It follows from St Augusti nes argument that two separate classes of women were require - good, virtuous, sexually sheep pen wives to service mens procreative needs within marriage, and prostitutes who would furnish to their desires and pleasures outside of marriage. Such thinking views prostitution as a necessary social evil, and reinforces the madonna/whore dichotomy. Given the fact that mens demand for prostitution services has not abated through the ages, the historic reply has been to continue to seek its regulation and control rather than its eradication. For instance, in chivalrous England and Europe the preferred way of regulating prostitution was to restrict prostitutes to working in certain districts and/or requiring that they dress in particular, identifiable, styles. Thus in Paris, prostitutes were confined to working in brothels in particular areas of the town and were required to wear armbands, dye their hair, or in other ways note themselves from respectable society matrons (Bullough and Bullough, 1987, 125). Women who violated such codes of behaviour could find themselves expelled from that district, literally being run out of town. Confining the sex industry to specifically designated areas was also seen as economically advantageous in that it enabled municipal councils to piece in the profits (Roberts, 1992, 90). By the 17th century the practice of see prostitutes was so wid... ...ciety and an Analysis of the Causes and Effects of the Suppression of Prostitution. London, Souvenir Press.Beyer, G. (1999). Change for the Better. Auckland, haphazard House.Bishop, C. (1931). Women and Crime. London, Chatto and Windus.Boyle, F. M., M. P. Dunne, et al. (1997). Psychological distress among female sex workers. Australian and New Zealand daybook of Public Health 21(6) 643-646.Brock, D. R. (1998). Making Trouble, Making clobber Prostitution as a Social Problem. Toronto, University of Toronto Press.Brockett, L. and A. Murray (1994). Thai sex workers in Sydney. Sex Wor k and Sex Workers in Australia. R. Perkins, G. Prestage, R. Sharp and F. Lovejoy (editors). Sydney, University of New South Wales Press.Brookes, B. (1993). A flunk for strong subjects the womens movement and sexuality. New Zealand Journal of History 27(2) 140-156.Brothels Task tie (2001). Report of the Brothels Task Force. Sydney, New South Wales Government.Brown, A. and D. Barrett (2002). Knowledge of Evil electric razor Prostitution and Child Sexual Abuse in Twentieth-Century England. Cullompton, Devon, Willan Publishing.Brown, K. (1994). Lesbian sex workers. Broadsheet (202) 32-35.